The Meaning of 'Ham and Egg' in Golf

Have you ever heard the expression "ham-and-egg golf"? If you have, did you wonder what that means? You're in luck, because we like to explain golf lingo.

"Ham and egg," in golf, refers to two golfers who are playing as partners, when only one of them at a time is playing good golf. When one of the partners is playing well, the other is playing poorly. If the one playing poorly starts playing well, the other's game goes south.

In that situation, those partners are playing "ham-and-egg golf." One of those partners might remark to the other, "The way we're playing, we'll have to ham-and-egg it."

And if the opposing team is frustrated because the two golfers on the opposition side aren't consistently playing well at the same time, yet remain competitive, one of those golfers might mutter, "I can't believe those guys are ham-and-egging it like that."

The term "ham and egg" does carry the implication that the partners who are playing that way are keeping themselves in the match by doing so. Let's consider, for comparison's sake, another scenario. Imagine a 2-player team on which Golfer A plays well the whole match while Golfer B plays poorly. Those golfers are not ham-and-egging it — Golfer A is "carrying" Golfer B.

But when a team hams-and-eggs it, neither golfer is consistently good or consistently poor throughout the round. It's just that they are not playing well at the same time. Yet one of the partners, on each hole, plays good enough to keep the team in the match.

More golf lingo:

Popular posts from this blog